You should produce a chart showing total tax burden, not just federal income tax. In America we pay much more than is represented here such as state income tax and property tax, not to mention the multitude of nickel and dime taxes which add up considerably.

When one compares what Americans get for their taxes relative to French and German taxpayers, no wonder Americans complain. What do they do with your money in the USA? Just spend it on the military? Certainly not on health care, education, social services, infrastructure etc like the civilized world of Europe.

In the USA health insurance is a major expense to employers and employees that is added to payroll costs and deducted from wages. Strictly speaking health insurance is not a tax but for the purposes of comparing costs with other countries that have tax supported health systems it seems to me anomalous not to take note of such a significant factor affecting wage costs in such a significant economy.

@Spectacularj1, the chart is incomplete for the US. Most US residents are on par with Germany and France when you add up total taxation. In France for example, you typically pay everything to the national government, which passes it back to the local governments, but that's not what happens in the US - so it's difficult to calculate because it depends on where someone lives.

US residents pay their federal tax, most pay a state tax, and some even pay a local (city) tax. These are all handled separately. My California income tax rate is almost 10%, and that's not included here.

I fear the Swiss tax rate is actually a lot higher than shown in this chart, once state and communal taxes are taken into account. As per latest statistics, total state spending is about 35% of Swiss BIP. It seems the chart is just taking the federal tax into account, which obviously paints a much too rosy picture - wish it were true!

having lived in germany I can tell you that Americans are not taxed even remotely on the same level. In addition to heavy income taxes, property taxes, and other taxes, Europeans also have a 19% VAT to contend with.

On top of that imagine having to pay $10 a gallon for fuel, by comparison we have it easy.

Why focus in gross income of $100000? Surely average or median would be more informative? $100000 is WAY above median even in rich countries. Perhaps it is because $100000 is representative of The Economist's readership???

I agree this is a simplistic analysis but I think the idea behind a quick and easy chart like this is to provide very basic analysis, not be a thesis.

If you read the details on the KPMG report you'll see the US figures are calculated based on New York State (but doesn't mention additional taxes for New York City), Canada is based on Ontario and Swiss is based on Zurich canton taxes.

The Greek figures are totally wrong. Anyone earning $100k a year doesn't pay any taxes. That's why the country is broke.

The chart is deficient in many respects. For example many countries have a Sales tax or a Goods/Services tax while others dont. This is merely a way of shifting the tax burden to the consumption end. Also curiously I note that Russia's rate is below 20%. While income tax is 15% there is an employer social security tax there which takes the effective cost to the employer well up above 30%.

Just an observation- the chart uses a static amount of $100K, not an economic percentile in society. If you believe in a progressive tax code, as most societies do, this is significant. For example, it's obviously easier for an American to make $100K then someone from China. Assuming a consistent model in progressive tax rates (which of course isn't true but let's just go with it), according to the chart the Americans pay much greater taxes than the Chinese do as a much greater percentage of Americans are making $100K.

It appears that our tax level is calculated correctly. So I tend to believe the numbers from other countries as well. Of course, there are taxes not included here, but it is true for all countries.

The income tax in Israel is going down step-by-step in the recent years. It is nice to know that, although we are still above France and Germany, it is now not by much. It was so much worse even ten years ago.

I've read the report and it is inaccurate with regards to Italy:
It is true that social charges are 9,5%, but employers have to pay around 33% more than the gross salary as additional contribution for social charges.
You can imagine what employers do and who is really paying the additional charges ...